Freak accident ends local hiker's Appalachian Trail quest

Mar. 20, 2014

Robert Crampton / Wes Johnson

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Appalachian hiker: Springfield hiker is on his way to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail as a way to help veterans suffering from PTSD

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Just five miles into his 2,180-mile trek, a freak accident ended Springfield hiker Robert Crampton’s effort to become the oldest veteran to hike the Appalachian Trail.

Crampton, 84, injured his left arm and leg Monday when he slipped on mud and tumbled off the trail down a steep embankment.

“I slipped down the mountain about 20 feet and managed to grab a tree that didn’t pull out of the ground,” Crampton said today from his Springfield home. “I was sliding pretty fast and you better believe I wouldn’t be here talking to you if I hadn’t grabbed that tree.”

Crampton said he managed to get his heavy pack off his back and was able to push it back up the hill to the edge of the trail, where he blew his emergency whistle trying to attract some attention. He was bleeding profusely from his left arm and the fall injured his left leg enough that he knew his hike was over.

“I got the bleeding stopped, but there was no one around so I got my hiking sticks and made it about a mile to the Hike Inn just off the trail. They helped me out and called an ambulance, which met us at the main lodge,” he said of the fall, in Georgia.

“They treated me there but decided I didn’t need to be transported to the hospital. But my left leg is not good and I can’t vigorously hike so I made the decision to end my hike and focus my efforts on developing a hiking trail program for veterans back home.”

Crampton, an Army veteran, had joined the Warrior Hike program that takes veterans on the Appalachian Trail to help them work off the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Crampton wants to develop a local hiking group called General Pershing’s Pathfinders that will do the same — get local veterans out on a trail to “walk off their war” and possible prepare them for the much longer Warrior Hike program.

After the accident Monday, Crampton rented a car and returned to Springfield, where he said publicity about his General Pershing’s Pathfinder program already has sparked interest in some veterans.

“I’ve already heard from one veteran who called me and said he wants to hike,” Crampton said. “That will now be my focus — to get this local group up and growing.”

Had he finished the Appalachian Trail hike at age 85, Crampton would have been the oldest veteran to accomplish that feat. He took the unexpected sudden end to his adventure in stride.

“Everything happens for a reason,” Crampton said. “I’ll leave it to someone else to become the oldest veteran to hike the Appalachian Trail. Sometimes you’re a better coach than a player, and that’s what I see my role being now.”